1. Field of the Invention
People who play the guitar or similar stringed instrument want the musical instrument to be positioned conveniently in front of them for play with hands and guitar string pick. Thus, the state of the art has been to use a shoulder strap temporarily affixed to either end of the guitar and placed over the shoulder or looped around the neck of the player. In order to afford both easy release of the shoulder strap when done playing and a secure lock to the anchor of the guitar during play, there have been a number of proposed solutions.
2. Prior Art
The prior art in affixing a shoulder strap to the guitar has several variations. In one variation, U.S. Pat. No. 4,271,999, Jun. 9, 1981 registered to David M. Stravitz, discloses a Guitar Strap Connector. The patent teaches a body member having a slot for connecting to the web shoulder strap and a generally key hole shaped opening consisting of two interconnected holes, one hole being large enough for the post on the guitar to fit through it and then for the post to slide into the smaller hole and lock the guitar post in the smaller hole opening.
A subsequent patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,127, Feb. 19, 1991, registered to Larry J., Mechem, et. al., discloses a Locking Attachment for Guitar Straps and the Like. The patent teaches a body member having a slot for connecting to the web shoulder strap and a single large hole with a connecting slot to receive a post mounted on the guitar. Once the guitar post is inserted through the hole in the body member, it slides to the end of the slot and is held in that position with a head button that locks on the top of the post.
A subsequent patent, U.S. Pat. No. 5,880,384, Mar. 9, 1999, registered to Richard Beck, discloses a Connecting Device for Attaching Shoulder Strap to Stringed Instrument. The patent teaches an attachment device consisting of a looped portion designed to fit under the guitar strings at the stringed end of the guitar neck, and to then be affixed to the shoulder strap at the neck end with an attaching bolt mechanism. At the other end of the strap, a single opening with a slot in flexible material enables pressing the opening over the guitar post, where it remains so long as the end portion does not receive too much outward pressure to cause it to slip off the guitar mounting post.